Fasten your seat belt at all times

The past week has been very stormy in the Southern Canton area.  When I was at the airport earlier this week, there came some heavy cloud with glow like the scene of UFO landing from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".  Later on, 10 minutes after the plane I got on took off, a strong lightning hit the plane hard.  Though I had quite some experience on lightning hitting planes, this time it was very severe.  Certainly the plane was very bumpy this time.  Remember often fasten your seat belt at all times. 

The new lounge, the Wing, Cathay Pacific, HK Airport

The Wing (near gate 2 of HK Airport) has gone thru' 3 months of renovation, and resumed its services as of this month. I miss their noodle bar a lot. Their wonton noodle is a nice treat before your flight taking off. What's more, there are more varieties of food, including hot and sour soup which I found some very nice dried mushroom. Their pastry and cookies are unexpectedly good. Peninsula catering really got a good merit on all these food services.

This new lounge has more seating areas and long or short bars serving drinks, cafe, ice cream, pastry to sandwiches. Noted quite many different chairs, couches, sofa...etc. You should find one which makes you feel comfortable.

HK Int'l Airport & Maxim's restaurant

There were a few times I would come to the airport for meeting some transit business clients (en-route to either Bali or Phuket) and this restaurant is a regular choice since it's usually in the morning time for dim sum meals. Tonight I came here out of the blue for a dinner. The food is average but a nice place to have a nice view to the check-in hall of the HK Airport.

1/2. The check-in hall.

3/4. Maxim's restaurant.

5. American ginseng, snow fungus and black chicken soup 花旗參雪耳竹絲雞

6. preserved veggie with duck 梅菜炆鴨

7. winter melon with asparagus

8. green bean sweet

The Cabin, new lounge of Cathay Pacific, HK Airport

Cathay Pacific has launched its new lounge near gate 23 of HK Airport, called the Cabin, after the Wing (at gate 65) and the Pier (at gate 3). The Cabin offers a wide range of cold dishes and some fruit juices like the below Morning breeze (carrot, apple and celery). It offers some nice pastry and hot sandwiches under the Peninsula catering. The individual zone chair (the bottom photo) resembles a bit of its business class seat configuration.

Plaza Premium Lounge, arrival area, HK Int'l Airport

The last time I visited Plaza Premium Lounge (which claimed to be the biggest airport lounge), I wasn't impressed at all. So this time as I walked out of the arrival exit and noticed they opened a lounge in the arrival area (BTW, CX had their lounge in the arrival area a year ago), out of curiosity, I went in and checked what's in there. Note: if you are the holder of American Express platinum card (the main one with the person's head mark) or AE CX platinum card, you can have free entry. Otherwise, $280 per visit is charged.

1/2. Spacious area and serving some snacks and drinks.

3. More chilled drinks and also hot soup to serve. 4. After I sat down for a drink and snack, a very polite lady came to me with a menu for a variety of hot food and salad selection (free of charge). As I wasn't too hungry, I chose a chicken filet salad with balsamic vinegar. The veggie is very fresh and the balsamic vinegar is good to be put on the side.

5. The lady was so nice to suggest me to get more. Then I decided to share this with my friend - a Japanese bento. Very nice miso soup and deep fried shrimp. The sushi rolls are at average. I think I will definitely go try for more. 6. The entrance is at the basement level between terminal 1 and terminal 2 connection hall way. This is something an Airport should consider for having lounge services for passengers arriving or guests who are taking a longer transit time or people who need to wait for their family/friends due to flight delay. Besides, next time I don't need to rush back home after the flight. These are the services we need.

The Travellers' Lounge - HK Int'l Airport

On the last trip to Cannes, I took a 1am flight out of HK to London Heathrow but got delayed for another hour til 2am due to the strict control of Heathrow for not accepting aircrafts landing in a much earlier time. In fact, the plane got a few turns for landing at the scheduled time.

1/2. CX informed of such delay and so I went to check in at around 12:30 midnight and I was almost the last one for them to close the counter. What a scene that I didn't see people in the HK Airport.

3. This new Travellers' Lounge just got opened a few days when I tried it. It claimed to be the biggest lounge in the World for holding a space of 15,000 square feet. What a contrast to their old lounge Plaza Premium which is just 2,000 square feet. 4. The food is so so and maybe it's due to the hour they almost close it. I noticed they have a noodle and congee stations but nothing was served and I could see some workers still working on furnishing some details of the decoration.

5/6. Drink station.

7/8. Some hot food but food quality is not much interesting. I understand why CX contracts Peninsula Hotel Catering to run their lounges.

9/10. some nostalgic photos of HK and this one of a CX 747 jet flying like it's in the apartments' jungle shouldn't be a stranger to any of you who were friends to Kai Tak Airport.

11. I need to write to them for where they can get such a sweet (super sweet) grape drink!. 12. The dessert is in line with other food - so so. In conclusion, being big doesn't mean good. The food quality and services are the key to attracting customers.